


Isn't It Funny?

by WillowRoseBrook



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Rating May Change, alien adventure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 05:15:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4335278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WillowRoseBrook/pseuds/WillowRoseBrook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Rose are called to a planet of tricksters to track down what the villagers are calling a wherewolf. But on a planet where pranks are a part of daily life, it gets difficult to seperate good fun from reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Run, Rose, Run!" Her Doctor came racing over the hilltop in a panic, flapping his arms wildly with his jacket streaming out behind him. Rose couldn't help but roll her eyes, but her amusement was fleeting. A massive creature followed the Doctor over the crest, a rippling black combination of scales and spines. "It's called a Steurt," he called as he rushed towards her. She couldn't help but laugh.  
"A Steurt? Like Stewart." He nodded vigourosuly. "Ordinarily very docile." Ordinarily seemed to be one of the Doctor's favorite words. Everything was "ordinarily peaceful," "usually friendly," "under most circumstances not completely annihalated by nuclear warfare." But nothing ever turned out ordinary with him.  
With a sigh, Rose took off running, now only a few paces ahead of the Doctor. The TARDIS was on the other side of the town, the town that she and the Doctor had come to investigate under complaints of a wherewolf attack. They hadn't found a wherewolf, but then again, they had only been in the woods for fifteen minutes.  
"What'd you do to tick it off?" Rose called over the deafening roar of the wind in her ears.  
"Dunno. Probably had a nest nearby, young to defend. Didn't like me trespassing."  
The creature was surprisingly nimble for its bulky size. Rose didn't dare look back, but she could feel its footstpes shaking the ground dreadfully close behind them. It let out a horrendous roar that caused Rose to stumble momentarily. The Doctor glanced at her worriedly.  
"Through the woods," he shouted, "We can't lead it into the town."  
Rose imagined the beast crashing through the city and had to stifle a grin at the idea of the short round orange people running for cover. The Doctor snapped her from the scene--how would they run on such stubby little legs? They looked like cheesepuffs-- when he took her hand, dragging her to the right.  
"I'm hoping it'll lose interest if we run long enough," he panted. Rose wasn't so sure. The thing didn't seem to be slowing down.  
"Should we split up? To distract it?"  
"No!" he shouted, a bit more forcefully than necessary. "You don't know your way around here," he added, as if he needed to justify his response.  
The trees, yellow-green and spindly, loomed closer up ahead. The ground grew muckier as they neared, and the Doctor jerked to the left, dragging her with him.  
"Come on, come on, come on!" he shouted as they wove through the trees. Rose's lungs burned with exhaustion, but the spacing of the trees made it harder for the monster to follow them. She heard it snapping branches, and finally, with a melancholly bellow, it turned back.  
The Doctor didn't stop running until he was completely sure it was gone. Rose dropped his hand and bent over, flipping her hair upsidedown and putting her hands on her knees. Suddenly, she burst out laughing. He eyed her for a moment, but then started laughing too.  
"Gah!" he exclaimed.  
"Oi," she agreed. "You think that's our wherewolf?" She slumped to the ground and leaned back against a tree.  
"No." He took a seat beside her. "The villagers would know all about Steurts. Native to this area, fairly common." He chuckled. "In fact, I'm wondering if they didn't point us in that direction on purpose for a laugh." He could read the expression of horror on her face and laughed. "The Barlings are like that. Tricky species."  
"They could have gotten us killed!"  
"Hey, there's no saying for sure that it was on purpose." They sat in silence, catching their breath.  
"Say, you think there's a wherewolf at all?" Rose suddenly cried, truly offended.  
"Mm, no. Not in the human sense. But there's definitely something here. They wouldn't have called us halfway across the universe for a prank."  
Not in the human sense. Rose shuddered, images of the Scottish wherewolf from one of her first adventures with the new Doctor springing to mind.  
"What do you say we keep looking?" The Doctor rose to his feet, brushing dried leaflets from his trousers. Rose eyed him, then glanced up at the sky.  
"Don't you think it's a little late?"  
"Wherewolves hunt at night." He winked at her. Rose had given up protests for sleep a long time ago. She caught occasional hours on the TARDIS, or in the places they visited, but Time Lords needed little sleep and Rose tried her hardest to keep up with the Doctor.  
"Let's do it." He considered her for a moment, then extended a hand and pulled her to her feet. They continued in the direction they had been heading, deeper into the woods. Darkness was falling rapidly, but the Doctor didn't seem to be bothered.  
"A Scrillo ship was reported missing near here, uh, probably about a week ago," he said as the walked along. Rose had a feeling he wasn't just trying to make small talk.  
"Scrillo?" Rose enquired, "Does it have something to do with the wherewolf?"  
"Ah, possibly."  
"What, are Scrillos massive angry hairy things?"  
"Nah. They're thin and green. But the ship that went missing, somewhere in this star system, was transporting a Garr. A big, bear-like creature. Bumbling thing."  
"You think the Garr crash landed here?"  
"It was an unmanned ship, and the timelines match up pretty nicely. Like I said, it's a possibility. We'll have a look-see."  
Rose didn't ask where they were headed. The silence was nice for a few moments, and she trusted the Doctor. He flicked his sonic into flashlight mode as they wandered along, following no particular path, but seemingly focussed.  
"I'm following ash traces," he offered eventually. "I'm either leading us to the crash site or a great big bonfire."  
Admittedly, a great big bonfire sounded nice. The temperature was dropping steadily, and Rose wasn't exactly dressed for winter weather. It was pitch-dark by now. The only light came from the sonic, a comforting pulsing blue as they made their way through the wilderness at a steady pace. Every now and then, Rose would catch a glimpse of the stars as they passed under a break in the thick canopy. It reminded her of camping trips in the countryside. Jackie had taken her a few times when she was younger. Rose had been up all night, afraid of the noises, the rustlings coming from the black brush. Funny, it had only been raccoons then. Who knew what lurked in these woods? But she wasn't afraid of the howling, the rustling, the occasional glimpse of fur or feather, or glint of an animal eye. She was with the Doctor. In alien woods in the middle of the night, but with the Doctor.  
The man in question halted suddenly, his arm flying out to stop Rose.  
"Listen," he murmurred. For a moment, no sound stood out above the din of the dark woods. Then a wail, low and echoing.  
The Doctor took off suddenly, breaking from their course, and Rose hurried to follow.  
"What is it?" she whispered, feeling that the situation called for whispering. "The Garr?"  
"Not likely." He stopped again, lifting the sonic above his head. "Look up." As the light passed his face, Rose recognized a beaming grin. Then his eyes flicked up to the canopy, and Rose's gaze followed. She let out a gasp. Above them, bathed in blue light, perched a dozen creatures that Rose could almost describe as giant feathered butterflies. Colorful, almost sonic-blue, and thick bodied, dotted with black. They were grogeous, they were...  
"What are they?"  
"I have no idea." He was happy though, ecstatic. "So musical." Another wail, though now that Rose saw the creature it was coming from she would describe it as more of a song, and an answering echo from across the forest. "Fantastic," he muttered. The creatures didn't seem bothered by the light, or their prescence, so Rose was content to stay and listen. Another opened it's mouth and let out a higher pitched call.  
"They're like butterflies. Or bats... or birds."  
"Or Sagrigapligoryi," he nodded. He flicked his eyes sideways for a moment, clearly amused with himself for throwing around words he was certain she wouldn't understand.  
"Yeah sure," she replied, too stunned to be annoyed. Rose wasn't sure how long she spent staring at and listening to the animals before the Doctor spoke, reluctantly.  
"We should probably get going. We aren't far from the crash site now."  
"Yeah," Rose agreed, not moving. It was a few minutes more before either of them made a move to leave the creatures behind. Their song followed them for miles, it seemed, but it faded before Rose focussed in on what the Doctor had said.  
"What do you mean you had no idea?"  
"Hmm? Oh. Well, I don't know everything, you know." Rose could just imagine the glint in his eye.  
"Sure you don't. You've never even heard of those things before?"  
"Nope! Don't come to this corner of the galaxy all that often."  
"Huh." It made sense; what was the point in traveling if you'd seen it all before? But still, it was somehow touching that she had gotten to experience a first with the Doctor. Something new for the both of them. She reached out and took his hand, and he squeezed hers in reply. The dark peaceful forest soon gave way, however. Orange light licked through the darkness, and Rose could see a column of thick black smoke rising to meet the sky.  
The Doctor broke into a run, and Rose followed, like she always did, exhaustion pushed away by the acrid sting of smoke and the heat of flames fed by rocket fuel.


	2. Chapter 2

Flames leapt from the hull of the spacecraft like angry beasts, reaching desperately for the sky. Molten metal pooled in places, and jagged bits of what had once been a Scrillan transport ship were burnt black by the flames. Charred skeletons of trees surrounded the clearing and the grass was ashy, then nonexistent. The wreck wasn’t large; it reminded Rose of a semi-truck that had flipped not far from her home years before. Only this was a little more...firey. A chill wracked Rose’s body. It came on suddenly, but it stayed.  
“It’s hot,” said the Doctor, needlessly, for Rose could feel the heat from where they were standing over a hundred meters away, and it was, after all, a fire. “It’s been burning for days. A week, even.” Rose turned to him, his face illuminated eerily by the firelight.  
“Do you think it’s possible that anything survived that?”  
“Mm.” The Doctor tilted his head, thinking. “The fire would have caught right away. But if it was quick.” He began walking forward, slowly. Rose followed some distance behind, wary of the flames. They made a circle around the perimeter of the wreck, the Doctor scanning for footprints and Rose watching the forest with some paranoia. Something was unsettling. The forest was so black, so silent all around them, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched.  
“Ha!” cried the Doctor trumphantly. “Here we are.” He hurried off in a rush, sonic flicked back into flashlight mode. “Footprints. Probably four or five days old. It was limping.”  
“The Garr.”  
The forest seemed chilled compared to the heat of the wreck, but Rose was glad to leave the clearing behind. She had encountered many hostile alien creatures during her adventures with the Doctor, and she found that she preferred the ones that attacked outright to the ones that lurked in the shadows, stalking and manipulating, waiting for the right moment to strike.  
“So Garrs,” said Rose, striking up a conversation.  
“Garr. It’s already plural, like deer.”  
“Right. Are they hostile? It’s hard to imagine some simple bear-like creature requiring the interference of the Doctor.”  
“They’re rather large,” said the Doctor offhandedly. “You saw the build of the townspeople. They aren’t exactly built for running or fighting.”  
Rose was unconvinced, and the Doctor didn’t seem to be particularly attached to the theory himself, so neither of them was all that surprised when they stumbled upon an enormous pile of matted brown fur--dead-- only a few kilometers from the crash site.  
“There goes that,” he sighed, swatting a fly and prodding at the Garr with his sonic. Rose crinkled her nose. Death smelled the same on any planet, and it seemed that every planet had flies. Flies and mosquitoes.  
Rose padded away and took a seat on a boulder, bored and tired, and watched the Doctor as he worked, poking and prodding the stinking beast, then scanning it with the sonic.  
“We should drag it back,” Rose joked. “Tell them we killed it. To get them back for pointing us towards that what’s-it earlier.”  
“Mm, no, we didn’t kill it.” He replied, taking her seriously. “But it didn’t succumb to its burn wounds either.” He left the creature, giving it one last prod, and strode over to Rose. “Seems on par with what the villagers were telling us. Something killed it, then left it here to rot. Something with long sharp claws and the strength to kill a Garr. Even wounded, those things can put up one heck of a defense.”  
Rose rose to her feet with a sigh, brushing her hands on the front of her jeans.  
“Bummer. I thought this was going to be any easy one.”  
The Doctor smiled, raising his eyebrows.  
“What now?”  
“We’ll head back to town. Ask around a little more and see what else we can find.”  
She leaned in, laughing.  
“Stop at the TARDIS. Someone needs a bath after poking around near decaying animals all night.”  
“I do not smell,” he replied, indignant. Rose rolled her eyes. He offered her his arm and she took it. He knew the way back, of course, in a perfectly straight line that seemed to avoid all the downed trees and mucky places. Their conversation was relaxed, but Rose couldn’t completely settle in. The feeling was back, and it was definite. There was something in the forest, something sentient, something that wasn’t friendly, and something that was completely focussed on her and the Doctor.

\---+---

“I’m sorry,” he said again, running his hand through his hair, exasperated. The orange man started babbling once more, angry, and the Doctor squeezed his eyes shut. “Naxav. Naxav! NAXAV!” Naxav shut his mouth. “Thank you.”  
They had arrived back in town just before sunrise, elbows still linked, and laughing. They had immediately been jumped upon by a crowd of Barlings.  
“Now isn’t a time for laughing!” one had exclaimed. One whom Rose had learned was called Naxav, a town something-or-other whose duty it was to deal with such situations as werewolves. He was now engaged in a heated argument with the Doctor, and had been for the past half hour.  
“We were out looking, Naxav.”  
There had been another attack last night. Theresa Morxof’s livestock was missing, from what Rose could pick up, and the town was intent on blaming the Doctor for fooling around instead of doing his job.  
“Hey, we aren’t required to help you, you know.”  
Rose was slumped back against a brick cottage, trying her hardest to stay awake.  
“In fact, we were out all night searching for your beast! It’s high time we took a break. Rose and I are going back to our lodging. To sleep.”  
He parted the oompa-loompa sized crowd easily, his face steeled. There were angry murmurings, but who dared defy the town’s only hope? The Doctor offered his hand to Rose and she took it in silence. Once they were out of earshot of the crowd, Rose teased,  
“I thought Time Lords didn’t need sleep.”  
“We need showers,” he replied almost coldly. Then he cracked a smile, a forced one, but a smile still. “Sorry. I just…” He clenched his fists. “I want to help. Wrong place, wrong time, you know? And I hate being accused…. After we take a little rest we’ll get back at it. See if we can find any of the missing livestock.”  
Rose nodded. They weren’t far from the TARDIS now. She was parked in a nice grove of trees just outside of town. The perfect place for the machine to recharge while Rose and the Doctor solved their latest mystery.  
“What the?”  
Rose glanced up. Yes, there were the trees. But where was the TARDIS? The Doctor rushed ahead, and when Rose reached him he was standing, confused, in the place where they had left the ship. He let out a laugh.  
“Guess she’s getting into the spirit of the planet. Ol’ trickster.” Rose was slightly less amused.  
“I was actually planning on taking a nap. What are we going to do now?”  
“Well, we can’t exactly go back into town after the scene we just caused,” the Doctor said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “It’s shady here. Want to lay down in the grass?”  
“The grass,” Rose muttered, but at this point she would take it. They settled down together, hands joined, like their picnic on New Earth.  
“Where do you want to go after this, Rose?” The Doctor asked softly.  
“Bed,” she sullenly replied..  
“We could finally make it out to Barcelona.”  
“Then a shower.”  
“There’s a beautiful ice planet not far from here.”  
“A nice cup of tea.”  
“Or if you’re looking for something a little warmer, there’s Athena 6 in the Neptune System. Humans,” he smiled, “Always going back to their Greek and Roman roots for naming things. Even a bajillion light years away from home. Always back to their roots…”  
They were silent again. Rose was feeling guilty for her lack of cooperation.  
“What do you miss from home?” he asked. Rose felt inclined to argue that he was her home now, but somehow it seemed cheesy, and she had already been difficult enough for one day.  
“Mm, my mum, some days,” she decided. “Uh, dogs are nice. I like going shopping every once in a while. Chips, of course.” She had no real profound answer.  
“Not sleep?” he teased.  
“I’ve already complained enough.”  
“Oh, Rose Tyler.” He rolled over to face her, propped up on one elbow. “Rested enough?” There was a grin on his face. She groaned.  
“I haven’t even closed my eyes!”  
“Humans. I’m going to go look for the TARDIS. She couldn’t have moved far. You stay here.” Rose watched him walk off with a little regret, but tried to sleep.  
She would have liked to say that it was pointless, that she lay in the grass for a few minutes then got up to follow because her sense of adventure was too strong, but Rose really did drift off for awhile. She awoke to the blurry outline of trees against the aqua sky and the Doctor’s whistling.  
“I found the TARDIS,” he announced the moment he noticed her eyes open. “A couple of hills over. I took a shower, as you requested.”  
“What time is it?”  
“It’s been a couple of hours.” He extended a hand and Rose clammered to her feet.  
“Right. Great. Any new leads?”  
“No. You ready to start looking?”  
Rose nodded.  
“The TARDIS is over that way,” he gestured, “In case you need to find it.”  
“So what are we going to do? Talk to the townspeople?”  
“Theresa Morxoff. And hopefully avoid Naxav.”  
Rose smiled. The walk back to town seemed much shorter than the one they had taken to get to the TARDIS, but Rose was far less tired now. The sun was already noticeably high in the sky, which Rose commented on.  
“The days are much shorter than you’re used to here. Around 14 and a half hours.”  
Rose had to shake her head. She wondered why she never felt jet-lagged. She had visited an uncle in New York once, when she was very young, and had spent an entire day in bed. But jet across time and the universe, and everything was fine.  
"Livestock. How stereotypically werewolf. Theresa Morxoff lived in a reddish house on the outskirts of town and was absolutely hysterical when the Doctor and Rose knocked on her door.  
“Right this way, right this way!” She ushered them in quickly, new tears blooming in her eyes. “Yes, yes. It was the middle of the night and I just heard this horrific screeching sound coming from the barn. So of course I went out to check, because usually the Bow only shriek like that when they’re sick, and--”  
“Momma, momma!” A tiny girl in a dress rounded the corner and jumped into Theresa’s arms, cutting her off short. Theresa looked cross, but the Doctor stuck out a hand to shake.  
“Why, hello there!”  
“Are you here to hear about the monster?” she enquired, shaking it rather clumsily. Rose smiled. Theresa sat the girl on the ground and pointed them towards a back door.  
“Out there. Lorol will tell you all about it.”  
The Doctor leaned against the door and it squeaked open to reveal a dusty, fenced in yard. He waved Rose out ahead of him. A Barling sat hunched over the fence at the far end, and the pair made their way over.  
“Are you Lorol?” Rose enquired. He started.  
“Oh, no. Lorol’s in the barn. I’m just patching up this fence.”  
“Hm.” The Doctor knelt down and examined the tear. “This happen last night?”  
The man nodded, and the Doctor made a response that Rose didn’t catch. She left the two behind and knocked on the door to a short, long building. Another Barling swung it open.  
“You the Doctor?”  
“He’s outside. But I’m his companion, Rose. We came to help.”  
“Yeah.” Lorol ushered her out into the yard. “Every single animal is gone. Can you believe that? There was quite a bit of noise, but there isn’t any blood anywhere. Only a neat rip in the fence.”  
There was a shriek and deep rumbling laughter from the other side of the yard, and Rose whipped around. The Doctor clung to his hand, cursing, and the fence fixing Barling was quite literally rolling on the ground.  
“You bloody told me to hold it!”  
“It’s electric,” the Barling managed in between gasps.  
“I’ve figured that out now!”  
Rose looked on wide-eyed, holding back laughter.  
“Boys!” clipped Lorol. “Now’s not the time.” The Doctor made his way over to stand near Rose, shooting dirty glares at the man who had gone back to fixing the fence.  
“I’m the Doctor,” he introduced himself. “This is--”  
“Rose. I’m Lorol Morxoff. The guy fixing the fence is El.”  
“The fence,” he inflected. “It’s a very clean tear, Rose. Everything about the job seems extraordinarily clean. Did you see anything last night?” Lorol shook her head.  
“No. But Mell claims she did. She’s the little girl. But beware, she has a pretty active imagination.”  
The Doctor smiled.  
“Perfect.”

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter one. Pretty simple, fluffy. This is my first fic in this fandom, so I'm kind of just testing the waters. Hope you enjoy! Not beta-ed, so forgive any errors.


End file.
